Defining Marketing as 4Ps, 7Ps or any number of Ps is a numerical art - is there more than what seems to be oversimplified into Ps? Explore the 'patterns' around us...some call it marketing as well!

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Personality Assessment – The 16PF Model

The worst and the riskiest part of any subject like Consumer Behavior / Human Behavior, or for that matter, Marketing is its subjectivity – Lack of an Objective Evaluation!Unless you have a rationale behind your statements, and objectivity behind your analysis, there is restricted receptivity from the audience, or more recently, it is considered to be “Gas” in modern times!

One such model that gives an Objective Perspective to Personality Assessment is the 16PF model. This Sixteen Personality Factor model was developed by Dr. Raymond Cattell and is a copyright of the Institute of Personality and Ability Testing. It talks about the primary components of a personality.

The personality traits are broken down into 16 basic traits, called primary factors, and then, combined to form 5 secondary traits – called Secondary Factors or Global Factors.

Each factor is measured from a scale of 1-10 and the scale is called as Sten Scale (Standardized Ten Scale). Historically, a score of 4-7 is considered average range; 1-3 in the low range and 8-10 is in the high range.

Each of these factors is “bipolar” in nature, and has a left meaning and a right meaning. A left meaning is denoted by X- and a right meaning is denoted by X+.

Since each of them is self-explanatory, I am not going in for explanation of each of them. Also, measuring personality takes into account certain steps, such as measuring responses, and then identifying global factors…Expatiating upon each of them might just take this entry overboard and would be highly technical. So, for the sake of simplicity and “interestibility”, I would stick to the basic level.Here are the factors for your reference. They have been further explained in Pearson Assessments.

Factor

Descriptor

A

Warmth

B

Reasoning

C

Emotional Stability

E

Dominance

F

Liveliness

G

Rule-Consciousness

H

Social Boldness

I

Sensitivity

L

Vigilance

M

Abstractedness

N

Privacy

O

Apprehension

Q1

Openness to Change

Q2

Self-Reliance

Q3

Perfecionism

Q4

Tension

Try and work out the Combinations of your personality. So, someone like Manmohan Singh could be A-, B-(High on Reasoning is at the left pole), Q1+ and Q3+.As for me, I would take B-, I+, N+ and Q3+. Rest of them might fall in the middle scale, and are not extremes!What’s your combination? ;-)